Ballpark Figures.

• Author: Zirin, Dave
• Position: Edge of Sports - Stadiums during recession - Essay

There is a horror show happening in New York City the likes of which we have not seen since Donald Trump tried to buy and bulldoze Central Park. The Yankees and Mets opened their seasons in stadiums that cost nearly two billion bucks in taxpayer money. All the architects, construction workers, and designers should be very proud. The stadiums are cathedrals. But these are churches that desperately entice the moneychangers, and want to toss the rest of us out of the temple. After underwriting these ballpark Vaticans, the people have been positively priced out. Top tickets can be yours for over $2,600. It's criminal. It's also criminally stupid. In these recession days, both ballparks are dotted with empty seats, particularly those choice $2,600 ones, which have tripled in cost since last year.

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This is merely the latest example that shows that while the relationship between fans and the great sport of baseball may be sacred, it is also abusive. Over the last seventeen years, the ballpark has become an unbearable expense. Ticket prices have gone up 130 percent. That may have worked in the go-go '90s, even if traditional working class fans were priced out of the game, but in this recessionary climate, it doesn't fly.

Take Detroit, where the auto industry crisis caused the number of season tickets to plummet from 27,000 to 13,000. In a recent national AP fan poll, 45 percent said ticket prices were the number one problem in the game. Now, as one writer put it, take me out to the ball game really means please take me out to the ball game.

Many teams have relinquished the myth that baseball is somehow "recession proof" and have tried to adjust. The Atlanta Braves have dollar ticket nights and the Milwaukee Brewers have dollar menu nights. Other teams, such as the Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros, have $2 nights. The Minnesota Twins have a night once a week where tickets cost $1 for every 1,000 points in the Dow industrial average. This is what MLB has to do to reconnect with a fan base the sport has treated as irrelevant for the last fifteen years.

But the Yankees and Mets didn't get the memo, spiking prices to unconscionable heights. This led to a recent story on ESPN of a boss who had to decide whether to...